Everyone loves a good love story, and when it is allied with war history as well as Greek myths, then it ticks a lot of boxes.
For The Crimson Thread, set in Crete during World War II, Forsyth has drawn on her long-held fascination with that island, forged as a child when she read the myth about Theseus, Ariadne, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. At the same time, she absorbed the tales of World War II told to her by her grandfather, including the retreat through the mountains of Crete by a great-uncle in the Australian Army after the Germans invaded the island.
While the novel is populated with two fictional Australian soldiers, each in love with Alenka, a Cretan girl, Forsyth has also used as characters the real-life members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), established by Britain, and actual members of the Cretan Resistance.
While most households did what they could, amid starvation and reprisals, to resist the German invaders, it is Alenka’s thoroughly nasty teenage brother, fathered by a visiting German archaeologist, who collaborates with the invaders.
After a mass evacuation, many Australian soldiers were left behind, either escaping or taken prisoner; and there was much derring-do for those undergoing special SOE training and being spirited back to Crete to work with the Resistance.
Through it all, Alenka walks a fine line between working for the Nazi invaders and helping the Resistance, using traditional embroidery on her dowry sheet as a code. The people of that Greek island, who used whatever they could against the Nazis, and suffered horrific reprisals, really star in this love story, making sure the world does not forget the Battle of Crete.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Kate Forsyth is an award -winning author, poet, and storyteller.
Her historical novels include Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ told in the voices of four women of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales which was named Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; and Bitter Greens, a reinvention of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction.
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